IBM and Oracle Go Head-to-Head for Splunk Buyout

Hot on the heels of Dell’s rumored mega-buyout, rival firm IBM is reported to be flexing its own financial muscles as it looks to make data analytics firm Splunk its first major acquisition of the year.

Once again it was Bloomberg who first jumped on the story, adding that Oracle may also be eying up the big data firm, possibly sparking a bidding war between them and ‘Big Blue’.

The report emphasizes that IBM is the most likely to make a move for the big data firm however. Splunk, which offers analysis and monitoring tools that help businesses to gain insights from their data, previously made headlines last April when it became the first big data company to go public.

For IBM, the move would make sense as it looks to strengthen its own data analytics offering. IBM is already something of a leader in this field, having acquired a number of data analysis firms over the last year, including Varicent Software and Vivisimo.

Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT, told the V3 website that given IBM’s stated goals for the future, and Splunk’s own superb data analysis products, the two companies would seem to be a perfect match for each other:

“Splunk’s focus on gathering [and] analysing machine-generated data with the intent of using that intelligence to improve business processes and decision making is right down IBM’s alley technologically and could certainly fit into a range of the company’s analytics solutions,” said King.

“Just as importantly, the intent of Splunk’s solutions is in line with what many if not most IBM enterprise customers hope to achieve with IT.”

Even so, IBM may not have it all their own way, as Bloomberg suggests that Oracle may try to steal their thunder and come in with an even bigger bid for Splunk.

Oracle has stepped up its own focus on data analytics in recent years, in spite of comments by company president Mark Hurd, who once famously labelled big data as “worthless”. To this end, Oracle brought out its own data analytics tool last January, and this would obviously benefit massively if the company were to pair up with Splunk.

For Splunk meanwhile, the company appears to be in a win-win situation, especially if it can tactfully spark off a bidding war between to the two firms. Its share price has already been given a major boost, jumping by more than 8% since news of the potential deal first emerged.